The Wee rocks. I am tired of this bang for the buck crap everyone uses to justify spending more $$$. It is a great bike, period.

For this reason, the Wee shall inherit the earth. The rest of the world will be doing valve adjustments (beemer), waiting for parts (katooms), or waiting for the perfect light weight multi cylinder ADV bike while we are riding it. (maybe not perfect, but shit, good enough for my skills).

All in good fun, boys, don't take the criticism of your machines too hard you could be on a scooter!

I bought a 1000 and really liked it. Then I bought a 650 for a girl friend to ride and decided I like it more. The 650 has smoother engine and is much more tractable off pavement and can do anything the 1000 can do -- at least for a solo rider. I would recommend the 1000 to anyone wanting to ride double or do a lot of high speed cruising -- otherwise the 650 is just as good. I have gone on a couple of trips on the 1000 with my riding partner on a 650 and it didn't matter what the road conditions were -- I never had to wait for the 650 to catch up.

Every bike is a compromise. There are faster bikes, there are better bikes for dirt, there are better bikes for the twisties, there are better bikes for touring 2UP... but when I am going to do all in one ride then I really appreciate having the V-Strom. Currently, my preference of the two models is the DL650.

I'll be the first to admit that I fantasize about owning a GS-1150 Adventure, so I really don't want to pit the V-Strom against the other choices out there. I just think it is a great bike in of itself. I have been very happy with the bike (I've put on close to 16,000 miles since last February).

I like to think of the V-Strom as a general purpose motorcycle for the curious...

Sandiegoland let me ride his Strom last week. I forgot how freaking great that bike is. I just wanted to keep on going. I miss my Wee. My Harley buddies laughed at me when I said I could ride as many miles in a day on the 650 as they could on their souped up Ultra Glides. I took the challenge and rode from McCall, ID to Santa Barbara, CA (1100 miles) in 20hrs. I went to sleep, woke up and rode 220 miles back to San Diego. Man, that was 6 months ago and I'm STILL rubbing it in.

One of my favorite daydream pics (Stanley, ID):

This is what it looked like after hitting a deer at 70mph (It was probably rideable, that's a tough bike!)